N’Diaye bests Harangody in paint

NEW YORK — Hamady N’Diaye has produced some of his best games head-to-head with Notre Dame center Luke Harangody.
The junior center continued his strong play against the reigning Big East Player of the Year by outplaying Harangody throughout the night.
Harangody came into the contest averaging 23.7 points per game, but N’Diaye outscored Fighting Irish junior 14 to seven while holding him to 3-of-17 shooting.
“I always give it my best whoever I’m playing against,” N’Diaye said. “And tonight it was my first chance to get into the [Big East Tournament] and I’ve been waiting for this chance for three years now. It wasn’t about playing against Harangody because I didn’t pack to leave because I didn’t want to go home. That’s the reason I gave it my best on the defensive end — knowing that I have had success playing against Harangody on defense which is one of the things I do best.”
It is the second time this season that N’Diaye has been able to slow down the Irish big man. In the team’s Feb. 25 meeting at the Joyce Center Harangody scored 20 points, but it came on 7-of-25 shooting.
 “Luke struggled a little bit with the shot blockers back there,” said Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey. “You have to give those big guys credit because they pulled him out [away from the basket] a little bit.”
In the final minute of the game, freshman guard Mike Rosario took a hard fall after attempting a layup.
Rosario was down on the floor under the Knights’ basket for several moments before he was helped off the court by trainers and replaced by sophomore forward Earl Pettis.
“He banged his head, but I think he’s fine,” head coach Fred Hill Jr. said.
In its final three games of the season, the RU men’s basketball team has struggled to score points, and last night the trend continued.
RU scored just 19 first half points while shooting a measly 25 percent, and only shot 33 percent for the game.The Knights were only one-of-nine from behind the arc before the break.
Rutgers was able to heat up enough in the second half that they hit the 50 point barrier for the first time in three games, but it wasn’t enough to knock off the Irish.
RU was able to shake off its poor shooting start to briefly get back into game with a 13-3 run over the opening five minutes of the second half.
Rosario got the ball rolling with a jumper on the Knights’ first possession of the half and Pettis capped the spurt with a three from the left corner that cut the Irish lead to 33-32 with 15:26 to play.
But Notre Dame answered immediately with a 7-0 burst, forcing Hill to call timeout as the Irish kept RU at arm’s length.
DePaul entered the Big East tournament winless in conference play, but in the day’s first game the Blue Demons (9-23) stunned Cincinnati (18-14) 67-57.
Guard Will Walker and forward Dar Tucker scored 17 points each in the victory.
Prior to the start of the game, the Big East announced that Connecticut center Hasheem Thabeet and Pittsburgh center DeJuan Blair were co-Big East Players of the Year.
Thabeet averaged 13.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and 4.5 blocked shot per game for the Huskies. Blair posted an average of 15.6 points per game while leading the conference in rebounding with 12.4 per game.
Villanova head coach Jay Wright was named Coach of the Year after guiding the Wildcats to a 25-16 (13-5 Big East) record and a four seed in the conference tournament.
Thabeet was also named Defensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive year.
Last night’s game was not the first time RU and Notre Dame squared off in the Big East Tournament.
In 2005, the 11th-seeded Knights upset the 6th-seeded Irish 72-65 behind a 21-point effort from Ricky Shields. RU was then blown out by Syracuse in the quarterfinals the next night 81-57.